


blood on my angel's lips blends in with their makeup

by zeitgeistofnow (orphan_account)



Category: Charlie's Angels (2019)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Also lesbians, Canon Lesbian Character, Character Study, F/F, Gen, Menstruation, and probably also just kristen stewart's vibe, but i think they're going off the fact she checked out that woman in the gym?, canon wlw? is she canon???? the wiki said she was, five times sabina was scared/ashamed of blood and one time she wasn't?? one time she was supported?, heck idk, i'm so sophisticated i'm writing a Character Study, no sex tho sorry, read it and figure out what's going on, so excited to finally get to use this tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21626695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/zeitgeistofnow
Summary: sabina's been around blood her whole life. all afab people and everyone who likes to punch and kick and run until they can't hear anything but the wind whistling past their ears have. it's just part of life.well. a bad part, in sabina's opinon.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 46





	blood on my angel's lips blends in with their makeup

1.

Sabina's seven years old, wearing a Gucci dress and jelly shoes that cost more than her nanny's rent. The whole family is on vacation, staying at a resort in the Alps. The expanse of bright green grass is like nothing Sabina's ever seen before and she revels in it the only way a kid can- running and tumbling and shrieking at the top of her lungs. Her nanny knows kids, knows the green grass and she knows New York City, so she lets Sabina run. 

And of course, Sabina falls, because she's never really run before. Certainly not somewhere like this with mole-hills and tiny rocks and all sorts of things to catch the toe of your jelly shoes on. She trips and falls and skins her knee. Her nanny is by her side before it's even occurred to her to start wailing. Blood wells through the scratches and stains the hem of her dress.

Her father, Sabina learns, doesn't like bloodstains. Her mom, the eternal Lady Macbeth, says that blood will have blood but in Sabina's experience, blood leads to bruises and sharp talking-tos more than anything else.

2.

Sabina starts bleeding regularly when she's twelve.

She hides it for three months, tossing her panties in the trash. It's barely even a conscious thing- she never sat down, dark brown crud caking her thighs, and thought ah, yes. Due to various socio-economically entrenched ideas I have about my place in society as an upper-class afab person, I ought to hide the fact that I am doing something as common as menstruating, as I know that this is viewed as impure in polite society. No, it was something deeper than that, a shame that even she couldn't quite place.

She got sloppy, she supposes, her fourth cycle. Didn't quite manage to take out the trash before it started to stink and her mother stalks into the bedroom in her high-high heels and straight back that Sabina would spend hours trying to imitate. She casts one disgusted look at her daughter's wastebasket before sitting on the queen-sized bed, legs crossed daintily in front of her. Sabina curls in on herself in the loveseat across from her mother, waiting for the tirade that she knows was coming. 

Instead, there is something akin to pity in her mother's face, insofar as Sabina can tell through all the Botox. "Sweetheart," she begins, and Sabina slowly lifts her head. "Sit like a lady."

Sabina shifts- back straight, legs together and crossed at the ankle, skirt smoothed naturally. 

"Good. Now." Her mother's face crinkles a bit, and she reaches forward as if to put a consoling hand on her daughter's shoulder. The bed is just a bit too far away, though. Sabina stares at the floor. "You've become a woman without me, it seems."

Is that was being a woman is? Sabina wonders. Blood and shame?

"I remember..." Her mother's voice is wistful. "It doesn't matter. You need to clean yourself, though. This is your womanhood, but it is disgusting. Never talk about it. It isn't polite."

3\. 

Sixteen years old with bloody lips- she can't quite tell if Rob's kissing her that roughly or if her lips are just chapped, but the result's the same- smeared, metallic-tasting stuff all over her face. Rob teasingly licks at her face and she giggles up at him. Ugh. 

"D-" Rob clears his throat and starts again, voice lower. "D'you wanna move this to my bedroom?"

Rob is tall and buff as hell. He wears tank tops all the time to show off his biceps and his hair falls in a soothing wave over his forehead. Sabina's not attracted to him, but she's not exactly attracted to any of his friends, either. Still, it's easier to pretend she is than to examine... well, anything. Sabina's not much for revelations or navel-gazing.

"Yeah, I guess. If you get me a sandwich."

Rob sighs- he puts up with Sabina, and she's grudgingly thankful for it. Also, he gets her drugs and has connections. She thinks he likes her 'cause she's rich, but that's why everyone else likes her, so she's not going to complain. "Yeah, sure. What kind?" And the sex is good. Rob knows what he's doing, she has to give him that.

"Y'know, I'm really feeling a tuna sandwich right now. Or maybe cucumbers." Sabina shrugs. "Or hey, if you've got it, caviar and lobster is always a good combo."

"Yeah, yeah." Rob rolls his eyes and pushes against the wall, standing up. "Come get your sandwich, bitch."

"No need to be vulgar," Sabina sing-songs. 

"I'll stop being vulgar if you stop being an ass."

Sabina eats the sandwich at Rob's kitchen table and then reaches up to press a kiss against his jawline. "I should warn you," she starts, staring down at the marble countertop and crossing her legs, "I'm menstruating."

"The fuck does that even mean?"

Sabina's smile turns sharp with a defiance she doesn't really feel. Boys can smell fear, her mother used to say. "Means there's blood coming out of my lady parts, Rob."

Rob makes a face. "Oh. Ew. Sorta hoped that was a myth."

"Don't we all," Sabina sighs. 

"We're not fucking tonight," Rob warns, like it should be obvious. Sabina supposes it is. "I'll get you something for your lip, though."

4.

Sabina, age twenty-three, has a wide-open gait. She swaggers when she walks- sometimes she sways a bit. When she's high or drunk. But she's not high now, just exhilarated.

She pulls Em behind her, dashing away from the broken-open window and toward the subway entrance. They collapse against the turnstile, flush with excitement and the knowledge that the worst that will happen is a night in holding. Money can't buy happiness, but it can sure buy the law. 

Em's one Sabina's newest friends. Shaved head, a septum piercing, a grin that makes Sabina want to do everything she knows she can't. 

"Not too bad for a cake eater," Em says, head tilted to the side and face wide open. Her huge hoop earrings sway when she shifts.

"Not too bad, huh?" Sabina shrugs her jacket lower on her sleeves- a bralette and sherpa jacket are fine when you're just milling about, but the sherpa gets hot in the middle of summer. She doesn't smile when she notices Em staring at her chest, just steps closer and lowers her voice. 

"Yeah," Em says. She looks up at Sabina and there's something of a challenge in her eyes. "You can improve, obviously. You can always improve."

"You don't think I'm perfec- mmph!"

Kissing Em is exactly what Sabina expected it to be like- something of a battle, all sharp teeth and chapped lips. Damn, they both need lip balm. Isn't that supposed to be a lesbian sterotype, anyway? Wearing chapstick. Like the Katy Perry song. Sabina pulls away first and smirks. "Your lips are chapped. Like the song," and she hums a little bit.

Em snorts. "You know that's a sex thing, right? Cherry chapstick?"

"No," Sabina gasps, then bursts into giggles. "I must've, you know? That's something I must've known." She pulls Em toward her again- there are little flecks of gold in her irises, like buried treasure, and where their skin touches feels like fireworks.

"Yo, dykes," Someone shouts, and Em shoots away from Sabina. The gold in her eyes disappears when she narrows them at the approaching men, and Sabina is genuinely afraid of them. Sabina hasn't been afraid of anyone since her father. She remembers, suddenly, how small it makes her.

Em's impressively adept at... well whatever she does, something with kicking and punching and spinning around on her toes, but the men are still bigger than her, and Sabina's still just dead weight. Just a pretty, rich girl with too much time on her hands. 

The men stumble off when they've had enough, a few limping. Blood drips down Em's face from her bloody nose and it splatters on Sabina's jeans. 

It makes her feel sick.

5.

They're on a mission and Jane's not quite fast enough to dodge an assailant's knife. The cut's wide, open, redder than a fucking fire truck. Blood seeps through the bandages they wrap around it. 

Sabina doesn't know what else to say.

+1.

Sabina twists and turns and lets out a low moan, pressing her face further into the couch cushions. Elena frowns.

"Are you... okay?"

"I will be." Sabina waves a hand absently and she can almost see Elena shrug. She can't actually, obviously. All she can see is the coarse orange knit of the couch and the fucking pain. 

"Okay," Elena says. She sounds doubtful.

Sabina groans again. Jane clicks her tongue and looks up from the boots and shoe-shining kit she's fiddling with. "What is wrong, Sabina?"

Sabina feels herself curl in against the back of the couch and her face feels hot- some remnant of the ashamed little girl she supposes she'll always be. "Just... shark week, you know?"

Jane makes a sympathetic noise in the back of her throat and Elena tosses her book aside, the pages folding at an odd angle against the floor. "Well, why didn't you fucking say so? I know every remedy for period cramps." She sounds like what Sabina thinks her mom should've sounded like- loving, gently chiding. 

Sabina shrugs. "It's embarrassing."

Elena puts her hands on her hips and shakes her head empathetically. "We're in a secret spy society run exclusively by women. There's no way we're gonna keep being scared of a little blood. I'm gonna go run you a bath."

"I- wow, thanks." 

**Author's Note:**

> -huh okay. the ending's a bit lackluster and i'm sry abt that but this was an open tab for like, a week and i just wanted to finish it.  
> -i fucking loved this movie and im pissed it didn't get better reviews. okay, so it didn't have some DEEP MEANING but it didn't have to! it was a fucking action movie. all we needed from it was girl power, kickass fight scenes, and kristen stewart being hot. and they gave us that so what are you asking for.  
> -uhh just... thinkin' about blood i guess. period and otherwise. also about shame and rich people and how hecking angry i am all the time. i read a book called juliet takes a breath (rly good, please read it) ages ago and there's a scene where this mentor figure tells juliet that when ur on your period hot baths and masturbation are rly helpful and like?? it's true and changed my fucking life idk.  
> -please comment and kudos! they make my day :)  
> -find me on tumblr [@yearning-hours](https://yearning-hours.tumblr.com)!


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